


To Find My True Home

by Palefire73



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2148411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gyn has just graduated. An orphan, she finds herself without any true roots. When her Aunt's steward hands her a mysterious runic stone and she leaves to work on a Viking archaeological dig, could it be she will finally find where she belongs?</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Find My True Home

**Author's Note:**

> *I own none of the Nordic stuff. I don't own Loki or Asgard. In fact no one does. Just saying.*
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This story leaves quite a few questions, but I leave it to the reader to decide. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Oh, and it's not Loki Agent of Asgard. It's Loki of the Eddas, but there's no category for that!

I had graduated!  
  
There had been the post-finals parties; there had been the awful  _viva voce_  to determine my grade and the nail-biting wait for results. Then we had all had a great laugh at each other in our caps and gowns for the graduation ceremony as we were accepted into various Bachelor Schools and into the top 20% of the brains in the working population. Considering we bright young things were the future, there was a definite theme of trying to kill off the collective intelligence through some severe alcohol abuse! The amazing concoctions and ways of consuming various beers, wines and spirits knew no bounds and many people "lost" entire weekends forever, due to their overindulgence.  
  
But hey! It's part of the package, right? Three, four or even five years of study and living close to the breadline, whilst accumulating thousands of pounds' worth of debt? Surely a little bit of a celebration when you learn you've got yourself a first degree as a Bachelor of Science is allowed? The beauty of it was; degrees were no longer rigidly bound to one subject. The credits I earned in my first year were in areas such as;  _Political Science_ ,  _History of Warfare_ and  _Medieval Celtic Religion._ These had led on to an interest in ancient civilisations and the fact that I was at York Uni meant I couldn't help but be drawn to the Nordic history all around me. A helpful lecturer on my second year Archaeology course made some fantastic arrangements and it was now, having spent my third and final year at Oslo Uni studying  _Viking Culture and Social Science,_ that I was packing to leave Norway.  
  
Not that I wanted to leave! Was there any  ** _real_**  reason for returning to England? There was no one there; my parents had died when I was five, there were no siblings and the Aunt who had begrudgingly taken me in was more interested in her sculpting than her niece who had, thankfully, left to go into higher education. My only hope was that the various applications I had made to join research projects around Norway and Britain would bear fruit and set me on the ladder to an illustrious career in archaeological exploration. In the meantime, I had a summer job lined up in a supermarket. Not fab, but it would pay the bills.  
  
"Hey mate, how's things?" Amelia, one of my housemates and my closest friend here, hung in the doorway, smoking a cigarette.   
"You can't do that in here" I said, hand on hip.  
"Oh, we're leaving at weekend, who's going to know?" she took another drag and handed it to me.  
"You're right," I smiled and took a pull on the roll up. I closed my eyes and slowly blew out the smoke, feeling a slight rush. I wasn't an habitual smoker, but I never turned down Amelia's roll ups when she offered. I loved the flavour of the licorice papers and the particular brand of tobacco she used. I gave it back and sat down on my bed with a plop. I sighed, looking round at the things I had accumulated in my time here.  
  
"Oh, hey honey, what's the matter?" Amelia sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulder. Leaning against her, I felt tears welling up in my eyes and a sob wracked my chest.  
"I don't want to go back to England!" I wept and the floodgates opened. I had been so organised up to this point: sorting out a courier to take my stuff back to my Aunt's house in England, making sure I had paid all my bills, buying a flight to ManchesterAirport and then a train ticket home to York from there, swapping emails with all my friends and making promises to visit. Yes, I had danced through the whirlwind that was the end of my degree course like the Prima Donna of a Russian ballet! However, I was now in a half empty student house, as some people had already returned home to their families and I was sitting in my room crying my eyes out! I didn't want it to end! To have to go back to the huge, empty house just outside the city of York, rattling round the many rooms and hardly ever seeing my Aunt, who virtually lived in her out-of-bounds studio. The thought of it depressed me. I wanted to stay in Norway. Amelia hugged me and handed me back the half smoked cigarette.  
"Here, honey" she soothed "do you  _really_  have to go straight back? Come and spend some time with me. I'm volunteering at a dig in Tønsberg and I'm sure they can put up another person who is willing to shovel a bit of dirt around."  
  
Tønsberg? The name rang a bell and I seemed to recall a lecture about a really old settlement that had been found there. I thought about it and then decided a graduate of Viking History would probably not get turned away from any project going on there. Problem was, how would I support myself? I didn't fancy racking up yet more debt. Then I had an idea. I was suddenly very sure that subsidising a volunteer post over the summer would be something my Aunt would consider. Especially if it meant her niece would not be coming back to stay around until a job opportunity arose................ The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced it would work. I turned excitedly to Ameila, the tears suddenly gone and with a huge grin now spreading across my face.   
"Oh, do you think so? Please, PLEASE could you find out? I have an idea that could work quite well. When does your placement start?"  
"Sure," she said, taking her phone from her pocket "I'll give Stephan a ring. We start in two weeks, so will that give you a chance to sort stuff out?" Her perfectly manicured nails,  _how long would they last on a dig?_ tapped a number into her phone and she smiled over at me while it rang. "Oh hi. Stephan? Hi honey, how are you? Oh, that's great! Listen, I have a favour to ask. You know Gyn? Yeah, yes, she's the one." Amelia laughed and winked at me and I gave her a questioning look in return. "Yeah, well I was kind of wondering........... you know the dig in Tønsberg? Er yeah, well, how would you like an expert in Viking Culture to come along and lend a hand?" she patted my knee and winked again as she listened to the voice at the other end. "Oh yeah, sure, that's not a problem. Oh, sweetie! Oh, you're the best, thank you so much! You'll have to think about how I can thank you when I get there!" Turning her back slightly towards me now, Amelia giggled softly. "Uh-huh, oh, well that sounds like something I could go with. Mmm-hmmm. Shhh Stephan! Now you're embarrassing me!" She turned back to me and gave me the thumbs up, her face was a little flushed and the sparkle in her eye was over-excited. So, Stephan was more than just her project leader, then. I might have known. But I didn't care; this was my answer to the problem of going back to England and possibly a way of being able to make a new life over here in Norway.  
  
As Amelia hung up and turned to me, I leapt across the gap between us and gave her a massive hug "Oh! Amelia. Thank you so much. I need to finish up here and break the news to my aunt. I'm going to go back to England and try to sort everything out and I'll let you know how I get on."  
Amelia smiled, "That's great, Gyn, it's gonna be a blast". She handed me a small business card "Here you go. That's Stephan's card. It has all his details on there and you can look up the project on the internet too".  
"This is brilliant," I sighed "this morning I could have cried my heart out, but now I have something to look forward too. Thank you, it means so much to me."  
  
"Er, hi guys". A knock on the doorway made us both look round. Matthew stood there, a tall, skinny blonde 21 year-old with sparkling blue eyes and a generous grin. "I've come to say goodbye - my train leaves in an hour. Sucks, huh?" He ambled into the room and Amelia stood up to greet him. He took her diminutive frame into his arms and gave her a hug.   
"Oh hey Matt, you have a great time time touring Europe before you have to settle down." she said. Drawing back, she reached up and ruffled the mop of curls on his head "Don't go getting mixed up with any dodgy girls!" she laughed. Standing up on her tip toes, she gave him a peck on the cheek and I noticed his eyes move over to me as he blushed under her attentions. "See you in a couple of weeks, Gyn!" Waving prettily, she swept from the room and bounced down the stairs.  
  
Matthew sauntered over to me, his hands in the pockets of his cropped combats. "Well, I guess this is 'so long', Marvel Girl." he smiled, looking down at me. I stood up and was instantly was almost uncomfortably close to him. Shrugging my shoulders and ducking past him, I went over to the wall and started to carefully remove the posters hanging there. "Yeah," I said "this room will never have such tasteful decoration again."   
"Can I help you?" He clearly wanted something to do before going to catch his train, so I nodded "Sure, just be very VERY careful with them - and DON'T touch the signed one!".  
  
The poor guy nodded dutifully and turned to the wall. It was absolutely plastered in posters, flyers, postcards and tickets for cinema and theatre admissions. Not unusual for a student's room, you may think. However, "Marvel Girl" was not Matt's nickname for me for no reason; the myriad of images before us had only one subject. Some might see it as bizarre, or obsessed; I just saw it as only having a wall this big. I could easily have covered one twice as big and still it would not have been enough for me. For the subject that was pretty much worshipped on my wall was someone very dear to my heart; someone I identified with, who I would do anything to actually meet, even though it was technically impossible and someone who I had, over the past couple of years, fallen head over heels in love with. The face staring down from the many pictures on the wall was Loki, Prince of Asgard. The Trickster God of Mischief himself. There were many incarnations of him depicted; ranging from comic book sketches, through medieval prints, right up to the most recent (and in my opinion the best looking) characterisation, the Loki as played by Tom "swoon" Hiddleston - sex personified - and a very talented actor into the bargain.   
"NO!" I shouted, as Matt reached towards a poster with Thor and Loki on it "Keep off that one!". I smacked his hand away. That one was my pride and joy. I had waited in the cold for hours, freezing my hands and feet off to get it signed. It was my second most precious possession and it was my most precious memory! Being enveloped in long arms as I got a hug off Tom Hiddleston! The wonderful smile he gave me as I told him through lips chattering with cold how much he inspired me to do well in my studies was etched indelibly into my mind. The smell of orange and spice and his gentle voice in his gorgeous Westminster accent had been such a fantastic experience, I hadn't come down from cloud nine for weeks.  
  
I reached into a packing box and extracted a cardboard cylinder. Carefully, I took the poster down, removed the mounting tack and rolled it up. I inserted it into the tube and clicked the lid on. This would be travelling with me!  
"You really are very protective of that poster, aren't you?" asked Matthew, smiling at me.  
"I certainly am and woe betide anyone who damages it or takes it from me!" I replied "It is very dear to me."  
"You know what, Gyn? I'm gonna miss my Marvel Girl." He took the cardboard tube from me and placed it on my bedside table.  
  
Gently grasping my upper arms, Matthew drew me closer to him, looking deeply into my eyes. I tilted my head back slightly, as he bent to kiss me. A single soft, sweet kiss. Our kiss goodbye. We had had a no-strings casual relationship during our time in Norway. Nothing heavy; more good friends-with-benefits than an actual item and it had suited us just fine. And now it was time to say goodbye. He was off to a shining new career in Berlin and actually had a fiancée waiting there for him. I was OK with all that - she would never know about me and both Matthew and I knew that today would be the end of what we had shared. So, last night had been pretty damn good. A good movie, great food and some fantastic sex - protected of course. A few beers afterwards, watching the sunset whilst sitting on the roof of our house.  
  
Now it was time to go. I broke the kiss and smiled up at him. "You know I'll be fine." I said "You have a holiday round Europe followed by a fantastic job and, of course, you have Irma to go home to. I have an archaeological dig and, well - " I tapped the cardboard tube " - I have Loki". Matt laughed and reached out to stroke my cheek "You certainly do - and it will take a better man than me to try to steal your heart from him! He is clearly the one for you - you are a perfect match for him." He hugged me once again and then my real life Oakley stepped back through the door and waved "So long, Marvel Girl! It was good." With a wink he turned and disappeared down the stairs and I turned back to my stuff.   
  
I had a shipping carton to fill.  
  
Two days later, I stepped from the carriage in York train station. Only a bus to catch now and I would be back at my Aunt's house. I shouldered my ruck sack and headed to the bus stop, rehearsing my lines. Lines I had prepared for my scatter-brained and disinterested Aunt.  
  
"....... so I was thinking it would fit well on my CV, Auntie. That's why I am asking you to take some money from my trust fund. I think it would be a worthwhile investment in my future."  
"Mmmmmm......." my Aunt peered at me over her half-moon spectacles, then turned back to the clay blob on her potters' wheel. "I actually believe you've come up with something good to spend your time doing, my dear. I was never that keen on your temporary position at that shop. See Mr Fraser on your way out - he can sort everything you need." As I left her studio, I punched the air with a gleeful fist. "I enjoyed our conversation Auntie" I said quietly "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go dig up Tønsberg!"  
  
Well, shit! This was proving difficult. I had a limited baggage allowance for my flight back to Norway and I could just not get that last kilo knocked off what I wanted to take. In the end, I decided to leave my hairdryer and my Loki teddy bear behind. I at least had my Loki t-shirts, pjs, pendant and baseball cap! I also had my signed poster. There was no way I was going to risk that going missing! It was nearly time to go. I crossed to a small table in the corner of my room. On it were a few small items that were all I had from my parents. A battered wedding ring, a handkerchief with my father's monogram on and an old photograph with us on as a family. It was of my mother and father, who were smiling, and me; a seven pound bundle of joy in my mother's arms, fast asleep. As I looked, tears welled up in my eyes. They were beautiful people; both were tall, dark haired, slim athletic people. My dad had crystal blue eyes and my mother had ones of deep chocolate brown. How I had managed to turn out short, plump and blonde was a mystery! All I knew was, my Aunt had not been impressed when she opened the door to me the day I arrived here. It was Mr Fraser and Housekeep who pretty much brought me up. As a last thought, I picked up the photo and slipped it into my jeans pocket. Grabbing my rucksack and suitcase, I headed downstairs. Mr Fraser and Housekeep were waiting in the foyer to see me off.  
  
"Well, I guess this is goodbye for a while." I said. "Thank you Mr Fraser for organising things and I love you both dearly. Please look after my Aunt and, if you need me, you can get hold of me........."  
"Via Twitter, Gyn, yes I know." Mr Fraser smiled at me "We love you too. Now go and have the time of your life! I expect to see updates on Tumblr within the week." He pressed something into my hand. I looked down at it. I gasped and looked up at him. "What? I don't understand." I held a small stone, etched with very old black Viking runes. I couldn't decipher them from memory, but a quick search on the best websites would soon sort that out.  
"You will know what to do when the time comes." said Mr Fraser. "Now, keep it secret. Keep it safe."   
I started to ask what the strange stone was, but he ignored me and ushered me to the door. "Just a little something that came with you to this house. It is yours to keep. Now, hurry along child - here is your taxi." I hugged him tight and Housekeep, too.  
"Thank you both for everything. I'll be home for Christmas." Mr Fraser smiled at me with a strange sad look on his face and patted me on the arm. "Have a safe journey and, never forget - it's about who we  _really_ are, not necessarily whowe  _think_  we are." I raised my eyebrow quizzically, but the taxi driver sounded his horn and Mr Fraser was already carrying my suitcase out to the car.  
  
I let my question go and followed him out. Norway was waiting.  
  
"And that's the main field tent. There you will find the dining area, toilet and showers. We have a small bar open at night too. You're sharing a tent with three other girls in the same row as Stephan and I......." Amelia trailed off, smiling to herself.  
"Oh yes? I take it the archaeological site isn't the only field he is ploughing?" I laughed. Amelia blushed and giggled.  
"Let's just say I really am enjoying this volunteer work. It's most, er, interesting what Stephan has been showing me!" We both laughed. I was really looking forward to this. Putting theories learned in lecture theatres into practise and most of all, doing it in Norway.  
  
Later that day, I met the other Vols - volunteers to you and me - there were only ten of us all together, so it looked like we would be a fairly tight-knit crew by the end of the dig. Tired from my journey, I cried off a late night drink and turned in. The tent was large and split into separate rooms inside so we had pretty good privacy. I stripped to my underwear, climbed inside my black and green sleeping bag and fell straight to sleep.  
  
A few days into the dig we had a progress meeting. This was to help Stephan to co-ordinate everything. We were working in three small groups over an area the size of a football pitch and he kept a map of the site in the main field tent, so we could see what had been discovered so far. It had been really productive. Various artefacts from around the 9th to 11th centuries had been found, which kept the historian vols occupied. Then the geologist in the group had found that a period of deep winter had occurred around 950 or so, according to the dating of the artefacts found in the ground at that point. It was all so interesting! I loved it - this beat stacking tins of beans onto shelves into a cocked hat. We had one day off a week and it would be the day after tomorrow. I had decided I would make use of the limited internet signal and upload a few pictures for Mr Fraser. I also wanted to start to decipher the runes on the stone he had given to me the day I left England. I had thought about asking Stephan to look at it, but something held me back. It was as if I didn't want anyone else to know it existed.  
  
"Oh, for God's sake" I tapped angrily on the screen of my phone. Finally, a day off. A chance to research the runes and I had no signal. "Bloody internet!" I had been trying with limited success all morning to investigate the stone. Damn! Stephan and Amelia had gone into town for the day and I wasn't in the mood to socialise with anyone else. I went to the field tent and took a look at how each of the other groups had been doing on their parts of the dig. Just late on yesterday evening, group two, who were working furthest up towards the hills, had unearthed a uniform shape that looked suspiciously like the edge of a large circle, approximately 15 feet across. The thing was, it looked like it had patterns within it from the couple of snapshots that had been taken on a dodgy camera phone. I was intrigued and thought a little excursion to the site would be in order. The walk would do me good. I could have my lunch up there and just think about things in general. I went back to my tent and collected my rucksack. The cardboard tube containing my second most precious possession in the world was still in there - posters didn't fix well on canvas! I placed a bottle of water and a sandwich I had taken from the dining area into the centre pocket and retrieved my  **most**  precious possession from under my pillow. It was a locket. I'd had it forever; it was around my neck when I was dragged from the house fire which killed my parents. It was a black metal, inlaid with patterns in gold and inset with emeralds. I had never been able to open it, but I kept it with me at all times. I placed it around my neck and picked up my phone. Aha! A signal! The queued messages I had been trying to upload started to post on their intended social media sites. I decided to take a selfie with the hills behind me, holding up my stone. I posted it to Mr Fraser's Face Book timeline, with the title "Off to find out who I am - love you x"  
  
Grinning, I turned and headed to where the girls had been unearthing the circular anomaly. After about half an hour, I spotted the site in the distance. I was quite excited; this was where the geologist said the evidence around and about was a bit weird. The severe winter had set in unnaturally quickly - almost as if it had been an instantaneous event. But then there was also evidence of a blast radius created simultaneously - and this radiated out from the patterned circle. I went over to site two and walked over to the edge of the shallow pit. Wow! The shapes were well defined and clear to see. They wove round in a maze-like pattern. Almost like runes, but more like a code or a fingerprint. A faint nagging at the back of my mind made me think I'd seen something like this before, but it wouldn't quite come to me.  
  
Some of the equipment had been left in a tool-box next to the pit and I decided to carry on a bit with the work. I took a drink from my bottle of water and settled in to it, my Loki baseball cap shielding my eyes from the sun. The earth covering the circle was fairly loose, despite having been subjected to years of weathering and compaction and I made quite good progress. I hoped that crew two wouldn't mind my "help" and carried on for some time. As what I unearthed revealed more detail, the idea that I had seen something like this before came back to me. I took the stone Mr Fraser had given to me out of my pocket and turned it over in my hands. I held it up to look more carefully and then I realised that the simple patterns on my stone resembled a small section of the patterns in the ground before me. This was amazing! This needed a trip into town, where a huge library would further my investigation. I shouldered my rucksack once more and turned to go, but as I did so, my locket fell from my neck and bounced into the shallow pit. "Damn it!" I muttered. Of all the times for the chain to snap! I jumped down into the pit and wandered carefully across the exposed patterns, not wanting to damage them, but desperately looking for my locket. A glint from a couple of feet away revealed it. With a sigh of relief, I stooped to pick it up.  
  
It was open.  
  
After all those years of wearing it, locked, around my neck, the mere act of it falling to the floor had sprung the bloody thing open! Suddenly a little apprehensive as to what may have been revealed, I gingerly took it from the dusty surface into my hand. As I did so, the stone in my other hand grew hot. I looked at it in fear, thinking it was somehow on fire, but it wasn't. The markings on it were softly glowing and moving in an oily way, which looked strange as they were black. I turned back to my locket and, to my amazement, the exact same patterns were glowing and moving within it, but they were the mirror image of those on the stone and they were coloured green. Logic clicked in my mind and I brought the two towards each other. As they neared each other, the stone flew across the gap and clicked inside the locket; it was a perfect fit. The locket promptly snapped shut.   
"No!" I yelled and tried to prise it open. "No! No.........no!" I struggled with it for a few minutes until my hands grew sweaty and my fingers slipped off the smooth gold and black metal.   
  
I slumped to the ground, not quite knowing what to do. I took off my Loki baseball cap and turned it round to look at the picture of him, as I so often had when I needed inspiration. That was it! I jumped up and spun round on the spot. The pattern underneath my feet was exactly the same as the one behind Loki on my cap! How could  **I** , Marvel Girl, biggest fan of the Thor movie on Earth, fangirl of Tom Hiddleston and Loki, have missed it??!! It was a hoax! We were unearthing the Viking equivalent of a crop circle! Tønsberg was the place where the Frost Giants had unleashed  _Fimbulvetr_  using the Casket of Ancient Winters in 956 and where Odin had come through the Bifrost to save the people living there. If you believed the Eddas and my favourite movie, that is! Shaking my head in disappointment and disbelief, I put my cap back on and studied the locket in my hands. Placing it round my neck, I jokingly looked up to the sky and said "Heimdallr, when you're ready, mate!"  
  
I fell backwards into a rainbow coloured bottomless pit, then there was utter silence and darkness. A split second later, I was catapulted forward so hard I thought my brains would leak out of my ears. Flashing stars and lights streaked past me at immense speed and I felt like I was travelling down a giant water slide, only there was no water; just light. Then it all came to an abrupt end and I fell onto a hard floor, rolling a few feet before stopping. Strong hands slipped under my arms and helped me to my feet. As I put my cap straight and generally tried to comprehend what had happened, I looked around. I was in a huge golden spherical room! It looked suspiciously like the Bifrost observatory. And I could've sworn what I had just experienced was the bloody rainbow bridge itself! Feeling sick and disorientated, I was just starting to wonder if I'd eaten a dodgy bagel for my breakfast that morning and was having some kind of an hallucination, when a familiar figure stepped into view.  
  
It was Loki himself who reached forward and removed my cap, looking with bemusement at the character upon it. He freed my long blonde hair from its tie. It was Loki who lifted my locket and looked at it in wonder and then at my face. And it was Loki who spoke to the person who was still behind me, supporting me.  
  
"Heimdallr, she has returned."  
  
A deep voice came from over my shoulder. "Indeed your majesty. We should alert Theoric, should we not?"  
Loki threw a sharp look behind me and hissed "That, my dear guardian, can wait!"  
Turning to me, he gently took my face in his hands and tilted my chin upwards. Leaning in close to me, with tears in his eyes, he said softly "Oh Sigyn, where have you been all this time?" and gave me the sweetest kiss I'd ever known..........  
  
Palefire73  
16/08/2014


End file.
